UN terms quake disaster worse than tsunami

GENEVA—The UN’s top relief official has warned that the shortfall in aid for victims of the earthquake in Pakistan made the situation worse than after the Indian Ocean tsunami last year. “This is not enough. We have never had this kind of logistical nightmare ever. We thought the tsunami was the worst we could get. This is worse,” Jan Egeland, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator told journalists on Thursday.
Egeland said at least half a million people in Pakistan occupied Kashmir were still out of reach in the mountainous region following the 7.6 magnitude earthquake some two weeks ago. The international community needed to set up a “second Berlin airlift”, he added, referring to a western air shuttle that overcame the blockade of the German city in the late 1940s.
An estimated three million people were without useable homes and in need of shelter, while about 67,000 people were seriously injured, according to the UN official. The UN says there have been 48,000 confirmed deaths. “The earthquake in Kashmir afflicting three countries is becoming worse by the day as the extent of the emergency dawns upon us,” Egeland said. “The world is not responding as it should,” he added, warning of a “cutoff” facing aid deliveries in December as winter and “massive” snowfalls takes hold in the region. “Tens of thousands of people’s lives are at stake and they could die if we don’t get to them in time,” Egeland said.
The UN has received 86 million dollars in aid pledges in response to its appeal for 272 million dollars in aid from the international community. Other bilateral offers of aid to Pakistan have been made by countries.
Currently 60 helicopters were operating in the region, with 20 more due to arrive, the UN said. The tsunami on December 26, 2004 killed 217,000 people in India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
It triggered an outpouring of short- and long-term international aid worth billions of dollars, although the unprecedented relief operation was initially blighted by logistical bottlenecks. The top UN relief official urged the world Thursday to step up efforts to reach as many as 3 million people left homeless by the South Asian earthquake with winter approaching. The deaths of three survivors from tetanus reinforced fears that disease and infections will drive the death toll of 79,000 far higher.
In a frantic effort to get supplies to remote villages, helicopters and foot soldiers headed out of the shattered city in the heart of Pakistan’s earthquake zone, Muzaffarabad, with medicine and food. Relief workers fear casualties will rise as winter arrives. Snow already has begun to fall in high mountains and temperatures dropping below freezing. The death toll in South Asia’s Oct. 8 quake jumped dramatically to more than 79,000 after regional authorities reported new figures based on bodies recovered and information from outlying areas, making it one of the deadliest temblors of the past century.
The Pakistani government’s official toll is 49,739 dead and more than 74,000 injured, but central government figures have lagged behind regional numbers. The regional figures, from officials in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province and the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir, add up to about 78,000. India reported 1,360 deaths in its part of Kashmir. The World Health Organization said three survivors died of tetanus. The first of an additional 20 US military helicopters will arrive by the middle of next week to help with relief distribution, US Rear Adm. Mike Le Fever said. A dozen US military helicopters are ferrying supplies and evacuating victims from remote areas in Pakistani territory. Another five helicopters, used by the State Department for drug surveillance, have also been redirected to relief efforts.—Agencies